


Confrontation

by RaidouKuzunoha



Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Character Analysis, Child Death, Gen, Minor Character Death, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-14 00:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4544001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaidouKuzunoha/pseuds/RaidouKuzunoha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>WIth different ideologies, Deathmask and Shura clash more than once in their teen years</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confrontation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [abu_simbel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/abu_simbel/gifts).



_A scream._

One simple scream was all he needed for his concentration to fall apart. He was in a battlefield against a horde of enemies, so why was one scream so devastating to hear…?

He turned his head almost immediately after hearing such sound come from the place where his partner had been fighting. What he saw was the small body of a child slamming against the ground with an expression of sheer pain on his young face.

It was only a kid, and yet…

All that he heard after the scream was laughter. There were countless enemies surrounding them, but their cacophony was nothing compared to the laughter coming from the Cancer Saint who just had impaled both the innocent child and an enemy bandit with the same spear.

Cancer Deathmask had many abilities, one of which consisted of sending someone’s soul directly to the entrance to the underworld. But Deathmask thought that was too easy, there wasn’t any _fun_ in giving someone a physically painless death. He wanted something more than that, so he found different ways to use his psychic abilities to inflict physical pain. One of his favorites, and the one he was currently using, involved using telekinesis to turn an enemy’s weapon against themselves. That was his favorite technique to use in horde battles. This wasn’t only because he could keep the enemies under control by attacking many of them at once,but also because this technique caused the most bloodshed. But that wasn’t enough for the sadistic Cancer Saint; he would always make sure to keep his opponents alive after piercing them with their own weapons just so he would be able to beat them up until they stopped breathing.

Regardless, Capricorn Shura could not understand why his companion had killed a child who must have been left behind when the villagers had escaped at the start of the battle. Before he could say anything against the man’s actions, however, he was attacked from the front, an attack which he easily dodged. He was able to knock out his attacker with a single hit. The horde of enemies wasn’t very strong-or at least their strength was nothing compared to the one of a Gold Saint.

The Cancer and Capricorn Saints had been sent to this village to gather information about a bandit gang that had been lurking in the area. Of course it wasn’t a mission that required two Gold Saints, but as the people knew the importance of their rank, seeing the Sanctuary send two of the twelve Gold Saints was a sign that Athena and her Saints cared about their well-being greatly. After they were done gathering information, it was planned that the Sanctuary would send 2 Silver Saints to take care of the bandits. However there was a change of plans once the bandit group made a surprise attack while they were in the village.

Most of the bandits had been taken down, and the ones left were defeated in no time once Shura regained his position while trying to ignore whatever Deathmask was doing. After taking out the last enemy standing, the Capricorn Saint walked towards the other Gold Saint who was kicking one of the multiple bodies on the floor.

“Why did you kill that kid?!”

Shura couldn’t hold himself back from yelling, but his voice barely reached Deathmask as the adrenaline of killing made his surroundings devoid of any sound. The clear lack of interest in his words exasperated him, even more when Deathmask still had a shitty grin on his face as he looked at the bodies below him.

“Answer me!” With that last line he finally got the attention of the bloodthirsty man.

“This poor idiot—” he said as he put his foot on the head of a corpse that was lying close to the child’s body. “—thought that using a kid as a shield would stop me from attacking since I’m one of Athena’s Saints. Too bad that kid was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“You could have easily attacked him without hurting the child!"

“And prove him right?”

Shura clenched his fists. Every word from the grinning man made him more and more infuriated. He looked down at the body of the kid again. It made him realize that near the child’s corpse there was at least 5 more people who looked nothing like the bandits. No… they could have even been a whole family. He glared at Deathmask with anger, but before he could say anything against the disgusting man, Deathmask spoke as if he knew what the other one was about to say.

“They got in the way.”

That was the last straw.

Shura had known Deathmask for years, and he knew what a horrible murderous intent he could have while fighting, but since they had rarely ever gone on missions that required fighting together, he had never seen his bloodlust go far enough that it caused him to kill innocent bystanders. He didn’t think twice before one of his clenched fists aimed for Deathmask’s face.

But he stopped.

He stopped centimeters away from Deathmask’s smirking face. What was the point in punching the other man? Saints weren’t allowed to fight between each other unless stated otherwise by a superior. Hitting him would just bring him to the Cancer Saint’s level. Shura pulled his arm back and walked away from the mountain of corpses. He could still hear Deathmask’s laugh from behind him as he walked away but he decided to ignore it.

The Cancer Saint had found his friend’s reaction very amusing. Since they were kids he had always found entertaining to annoy the Capricorn Saint until he lost his temper. He even got to the point where the other one would punch him on the shoulder, but they were never as strong as the one Shura had wanted to strike him with this time. It was funny for him. The fact that this was the time he got legitimately mad was funny to him. Why did he care about the lives of one or two humans?  They had been killing other humans in that battle, so why did the lives of some “innocent bystanders” matter to Shura? They weren’t innocent in Deathmask’s eyes, they were guilty of one thing… they were weak. They died because they were weak, it was their fault they weren't strong enough to survive his attack. What was the point of letting weak people like them live longer if their fate was going to be the same?

Deathmask looked down one more time at the lifeless bodies on the floor and then to the direction Shura had headed. It was time to leave… the mission had been completed after all.

———

 

After reporting the events that occurred on the mission to the Pope, both of them were dismissed from the Pope’s Chambers. The Cancer Saint had been the first one to leave the meeting room, he had become bored of it rather quick and knew Shura would take care of the report without him. Deathmask waited for his friend sitting near the pillars of the building, as he was used to walking back with either him or Aphrodite after a mission together. Once the other young Saint took some steps out of the building and saw the white haired man next to a pillar he finally spoke what he had on his mind the whole time since the mission ended.

“I don’t understand how can you still wear the Cancer Cloth” he said bluntly as he walked past him, without sparing Deathmask even one glance as he spoke. He stopped in his tracks as he waited for the answer of the other man. A laughter different than the one he had heard in the battlefield came from the white-haired man, it lacked the insanity that it had before.

“I don’t understand either, yet it still chooses to stay with me” After hearing his answer, Shura was filled with disgust and no longer desired to be in the same place as the repulsively chaotic Italian. Without saying a word to the man who was still sitting next to the pillar, he made his way to the Temple of the Twin Fish, expecting to have at least someone civilized to talk with.

The guardian of the twelfth temple had his peace interrupted when an annoyed goat invaded his chambers. Capricorn Shura kept stomping from one side of the room to the other as he made a summary of the mission he had just been through. Shura and Aphrodite were close friends since they had arrived to the Sanctuary, both for being close in age and because their Temples made them practically neighbors. Also, having Deathmask as the third friend of their group made the other two complain about the Cancer Saint together on more than one occasion. But this time the Pisces Saint had to disagree with Shura’s point of view.

“ But he got the job done, right?”

“ What…?”

“ You two were able to complete the mission, so what's the problem?”

Shura was dumbfounded with the reply of the friend that he had visited to seek relief, not only because he was baffled at what seemed to be Aphrodite not caring for the life of people who had nothing to do with the battle but also because he was right. If there had been a problem with Deathmask killing those people then why hadn’t the Pope reproached them when he reported their deaths? Were they really an obstacle to complete their duty successfully? The confused Saint didn’t know how to reply and was left lost in thought. What did _“justice”_ really mean in this Sanctuary?

"I’ll be taking my leave.” Shura bed slightly at the direction of the owner of the Temple as he spoke, being more formal than under normal circumstances. Pisces Aphrodite could only sigh at the sight of his friend’s silhouette disappearing as he walked away, he knew him well enough to know that his troubling thoughts would keep the Capricorn Saint awake for the night. He was sure Shura would attempt to think of a way to prevent the amount of casualties Deathmask could cause in missions.

 

 

 

———

Days passed and so did the missions. Shura had lost count of the amount of times he had to use his own body as a shield to protect other people from Deathmask’s attacks when they went on missions together, but this time it had been different.

Blood was fresh on his still clenched fists as his muscles weren’t showing any sign of relaxing soon. Deathmask lay beneath him with his vision still disoriented and a nose dripping with blood from a punch in the face. Shura could only stare at the man who he was straddling on the floor, none of the words he wanted to yell at him would come out at the time.

After what felt like an eternity, the pinned Saint finally moved.

Deathmask slowly felt his own face with his left hand without taking his eyes off of Shura’s stare, once his hand was in contact with the blood of his nose he grinned.

“That was a rather weak punch for a Gold Saint don't you think?”

“… My punch was not intended to harm you but to stop you.”

“Stop me? From what? Completing the mission?”

“Our mission was to capture our target alive, but now he’s lying unconscious on the floor after you beat him up for no reason.”

“But he's alive.”

“That's…”

Shura stopped himself mid-sentence, he knew that the target was only alive because he stopped Deathmask on time, but pointing that out wasn’t enough to knock some sense into the stubborn Cancer Saint. It was no use to continue arguing when the target had already been apprehended.

The black haired Saint stood up and picked up the unconscious man from the floor, as they had to bring him back to the Sanctuary to decide a punishment for his crimes.

“Let' s get going Deathmask.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Deathmask still stared at the sky from his position on the ground. He was not only surprised at the fact that Shura still talked to him after what just happened, but also at the fact that he didn’t punch Shura back once he regained his senses from the sudden attack. He wiped some of the blood off his face before standing up. They had a long way to walk back to the Sanctuary.


End file.
